Editing Thousand Islands (section)

== History ==
{{Quote box
 |quote  = <poem>O boating on the rivers,
The voyage down the St. Lawrence, the superb scenery, the steamers,
The ships sailing, the Thousand Islands, the occasional timber-raft
and the raftsmen with long-reaching sweep-oars,
The little huts on the rafts, and the stream of smoke when they cook
supper at evening.</poem>
 |author = [[Walt Whitman]]
 |source = "A Song of Joys", from ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'' (1855)
}}
Prior to European colonization, the Thousand Islands region was home to, or visited by, members of the [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy]] and [[Ojibwa people]]. Their name for the islands was ''Manitouana'' or the "Garden of the Great Spirit".<ref name=Bell_2007>{{cite journal |last1=Bell |first1=M.M. |author-link=Michael Mayerfeld Bell |title=In the River: A Socio-Historical Account of Dialogue and Diaspora|journal=[[Humanity & Society]] |date=May 1, 2007 |volume=31 |issue=2–3 |pages=210–234 |doi=10.1177/016059760703100204 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252436288 |access-date=November 26, 2016|citeseerx=10.1.1.486.9322 |s2cid=144703392 }}</ref>

The region was a part of the [[War of 1812]] between the British Empire and the United States. Many sites from the war can be found, such as [[Fort Wellington]] in Prescott, Ontario and the garrison on Chimney Island, Mallorytown, Ontario. Museums about the war can be found on both the Canadian and American side of the river.

{{multiple image
 | width=190
 | image1=Detroit Photographic Company (0625).jpg
 | image2=Detroit Photographic Company (0627).jpg
 | footer=Historical postcard views of Alexandria Bay (left) and a steamboat touring Lost Channel, {{Circa|1900}}
}}
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many distinguished visitors made the region widely known as a summer resort. During the half century (1874–1912) of the resort's greatest prominence, most wealthy vacationers came from [[New York City]], joined by prominent families from [[Chicago]], [[Cleveland]], [[Pittsburgh]] and other cities of the United States and Canada. Several grand hotels provided luxurious accommodations while steamboats offered extensive tours among the islands. Wealthy and middle-class summer residents built summer homes, and the region retains a historically important collection of vacation homes from this time.

Among the lavish homes built during this time were several masonry "castles", some of which remain as international landmarks. The region's first castle, [[Castle Rest]], was built in 1888; it was destroyed in the mid-20th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thousandislandslife.com/BackIssues/Archive/tabid/393/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/341/Castle-Rest-Its-story.aspx |title=Castle Rest, Its Story |author=Malo, Paul |date=October 12, 2009 |magazine=Thousand Islands Life |access-date=December 2, 2016}}</ref> The most famous extant examples are "The Towers" on [[Dark Island]], now called [[Singer Castle]], and the previously long-neglected [[Boldt Castle]] on [[Heart Island]], which had been left unfinished for over 75 years upon the untimely death of [[George Boldt]]'s wife. It has since been completed over the recent decades in accord with Boldt's original plans.

The Thousand Islands have long been a center for recreational boating. Large steam yachts, many designed by [[Nathanael Herreshoff]], required distinctive yacht houses. The region was known also for innovative power boating during this period. Three local yacht clubs hosted the [[Gold Cup Races]] of the [[American Power Boat Association]] for nine consecutive years.{{when|date=November 2016}}